Pottsgrove upsets Holy Ghost Prep to clinch District 1-5A semifinal spot, state berth

BENSALEM >> No, Pottsgrove doesn’t feel slighted with its No. 10 seed in the District 1-5A tournament. The Falcons had some good wins throughout their season. They also had some tough losses.

An unbiased points system evaluated them as the 10th best team in the district. That doesn’t mean the Falcons feel like they can’t win this tournament though.

Pottsgrove continued its run in the District 1-5A bracket Saturday with a dramatic 53-50 win over No. 2 Holy Ghost Prep in the tournament’s quarterfinal round. With the victory, the Falcons locked up their first state bid since 2010 and advanced to the district semifinals for the first time since 2015. They will play Sun Valley Wednesday at Norristown (5:30 p.m.).

“It’s kind of fun to beat teams and people not expect us,” said senior guard Manny Clark, who led Pottsgrove with 25 points. “Like, ‘Whoa. Where did these kids come from?’ We’re showing teams what we really have because a lot of teams haven’t gotten our best shot.”

After upsetting No. 7 Great Valley in the first round, Pottsgrove (15-10) faced an even taller task in Saturday’s matchup with Holy Ghost. The Firebirds have been one of the top programs in the district for quite some time. Holy Ghost coach Tony Chapman has led his program to four district titles since 2010.

The two teams met head-to-head on Jan. 26 with Holy Ghost coming out on top with a 65-51 win.

“They’re a great team. They’re a great program,” Pottsgrove coach Jack Flanagan said. “Coach Chapman is one of the dean’s in this district of great coaches.”

The first half was riddled with whistles. There were more than 20 fouls in the first half, and both teams had players get into early foul trouble.

Pottsgrove somewhat survived the tight officiating and turned a 10-6 lead at the end of the first quarter into a 23-14 lead with three minutes, 21 seconds to go in the half. The Firebirds responded with six straight points to finish off the first half trailing, 23-20.

Holy Ghost scored the first four points after the break to pull ahead 24-23 less than a minute into the second half. The Falcons had to fight through some adversity to stay in the game for the next seven minutes.

Pottsgrove senior Khaliym Smith picked up his fourth foul early in the quarter, senior Justin Robinson went to the locker room with an injury not too long after, and Clark joined Smith on the bench with his fourth foul at the 2:25 mark. Pottsgrove had to try and hang tight with its three top scorers on the bench.

Flanagan used 11 total players in Saturday’s game, including nine different players in the third quarter. With Clark, Smith and Robinson out, senior guard Jimai Springfield, who finished with seven points, helped steady things and Luke Kaiser, Nicholas Stringer and Jay Sisko came off the bench to keep the game tied, 32-32, entering the fourth quarter. 

“The bench is always important,” Kaiser said. “We need people coming off. Coach always just talks about, ‘Everyone’s equal. We all play as a team.’ … We just have to step up in a game like that.”

The two teams countered each other for most of the fourth quarter. Neither squad led by more than one possession until Smith knocked down a three with just more than a minute left to put Pottsgrove ahead, 50-46.

Smith sat on the bench with foul trouble for the majority of Saturday’s game. After scoring six points in the first half, he was held scoreless in a minute and a half of action in the third. He had eight of his 14 points in the fourth quarter, all of them coming in the final three minutes of play.

“It’s really important to stay in there mentally throughout whatever calls are going on in the game,” Smith said.

“We were talking in the huddle, me, Justin, Manny and Cam (Mowery),” he added. “We said we really gotta dig deep.”

With two seconds left, Holy Ghost had the ball in the frontcourt trailing by three. The Falcons held their breath as the Firebirds got an open look for a corner three. After the ball hit the front of the rim and the final buzzer sounded, the Falcons were finally able to celebrate. Their upset was complete.

Sean Sylvester led Holy Ghost with 21 points, and Jack Rittenmeyer added 12 points. The Ghost will have a chance to advance to the state tournament in the district playback bracket.

“We knew we’d have to play very well,” Chapman said. “Overall I was pleased with our effort. I told the kids sometimes you lose games and sometimes teams win games. This was one of those were they won. They just made a few more shots than we did.”

Along with locking up a state playoff berth and a spot in the district semifinals, Pottsgrove’s win on Saturday also awarded the Falcons with another opportunity to knock off a higher ranked team.

“Being the underdog is a lot of fun,” Kaiser said.